Compliance and Legal Information

Legal Technology for Business in Europe

openlaws is a next generation compliance and legal information system. Our platform automatically collects data from different sources (big data) and provides users with tools to increase productivity. With openlaws, closed or open groups can work together, for example, to effectively communicate and cooperate with your lawyer. Our system helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in meeting legal requirements and supports large enterprises and corporations in meeting compliance requirements.

Minimize risk

Managers and directors are personally liable for negligence. openlaws offers a simple solution to inform the company and its employees about the latest relevant legislation.

Save time

60,000 changes in laws per year are made in Austria alone. For legal experts to keep track without IT support is unrealistic. Utilizing advanced technology, databases can be monitored and analyzed automatically, saving you time.

Lower costs

Every company must adhere to the law which makes legal information especially valuable. Reduce costs and balance sheet risks with a combination of legal advice from experts and the use of the latest IT tools.

More data

openlaws currently integrates legal databases from Austria, Germany and the EU. Combining these databases in a structured system reduces time spent researching (i.e. a one-stop shop) and enables centralized tracking of multiple jurisdictions. Not only is this relevant for international corporations but it is also advantageous for purely domestic companies that must satisfy both national and European law.

European Union (EUR-Lex)

EUR-Lex is a database that provides access to European Union legislation, particularly directives, regulations and case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The oldest documents date back to 1951. EUR-Lex contains more than 3 million documents in all official EU languages and is updated daily and extended each year with about 12,000 documents.

openlaws currently integrates the founding treaties, directives, regulations and case law of the ECJ in German and English (ca. 40,000 standards and 15,000 decisions).

Austria (RIS)

The Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria (RIS) provides access to the Austrian federal and state law as well as Austrian case law.

openlaws integrates the entire federal and state law as well as Austrian case law (ca. 4,500 standards and 300,000 decisions).

Germany

The German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection provides nearly all of the German federal laws. The laws and regulations are accessible in the currently prevailing version. They are continuously consolidated by the documentation center in the German Federal Office of Justice.

openlaws integrates the German federal law (over 6,000 laws).

Better organized

Working with long legal texts is tedious. Utilizing the right tools, you can effectively and efficiently deal with the flood of norms. With openlaws you can highlight text, create your own folders, receive individualized notifications, generate automatic searches, create tags and comments and collaborate with others.

Highlighting

Highlight text in legislation or decisions. Emphasize what's actually relevant from unstructured text like you've been doing on paper for years. This saves you time.

Tags

Databases use tags and other metadata to provide better search results. However, sometimes there is a lack of information. The openlaws approach allows users to create their own tags. This enables the search to locate the intended information immediately. You can also rate the relevance of the tags (relevant/irrelevant). The system learns from the community and is constantly being improved.

Comments

Create your own comments. Write summaries or short notes. Experts can even publish their comments. Share texts in closed groups.

Please note that third party copyright must be respected.

Personal folders

Build your own electronic collection of laws using personal folders that help you keep track on what's important. Create folders for your topics of interest: business law, criminal law, environmental law, administrative law, medical law, etc. according to your individual needs. Of course, your highlights and comments are also viewable. The collection can also be shared with others either within the company or, as a legal expert, with the entire community.

Automatic searches

Use an automatic search to constantly monitor specific terms and topics. Use any and all search filters available to find exactly what you need. If you want to be informed as soon as the lawmakers rule about the "supervisory board", you will receive a notification. Or if you want to know when a new decision on the terms "internet and privacy" is published, you will always be informed.

Individual notifications

Receive personal notifications when there is a change in your openlaws user account, with documents in your personal folders and also in your automatic searches, like when they produce new results. Instead of always needing to manually check, you will be actively informed.

Working in groups

As opposed to most legal information systems, openlaws allows you to work in groups. You can share folders and comments, define groups and share content with specific users. For example: HR, the financial department and the IT department receive everything on employment, tax and data protection laws respectively.

Tip: you can include your consultant as "external legal department" or as "external data protection officer".

Teamwork and community

Teamwork is helpful in clearing up any questions. Using a coordinated workflow, the wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented. With openlaws, you can share knowledge internally, publish knowledge for all or even work completely alone – however you want.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium-sized enterprises use openlaws to stay informed in their respective industries. Know what's changing in laws on trade, crafts and industry, in the building rights, data protection law, company law, etc. Work with your advisor when creating your personal account.

Note: with openlaws, you fulfill the legal obligation to display laws at the workplace.

Legal departments and compliance departments

Legal departments and compliance departments in large companies use openlaws to meet legal requirements and compliance requirements. Use groups and rights management to distribute information. Integrate your external advisors (lawyers, accountants, business consultants) in the system. Ensure that the same research is not done repeatedly. Save time and money.

As managers, executive board or supervisory board members, you have been informed in the past from your lawyer, your accountant and your business consultant through various trainings, courses and workshops on legal conditions.

So not only do you know how the wind blows but it is important to inform the company's employees. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that things are done correctly. With certain organizational and technical measures, you can demonstrate that the necessary due diligence has been met. If then something goes wrong, it can be proven that you took the appropriate preventive measures.

Note: openlaws can not reduce the liability of management, when intentionally handling illegally.

Lawyers and Notaries

As a lawyer or notary, you can use openlaws to stay in constant contact with your clients. Using the notification system, you can decide together with your clients whether to take action and whether organizational measures must be set.

Tip: you can also use openlaws to increase your visibility. Publish comments as an expert and win new clients with your expertise.

Studying and research

As legal scholars or as a law student, you can use openlaws to better organize laws and decisions. Gather all the decisions in a personal folder for your next publication or for your thesis. You can also collaborate with others in closed groups.

Please contact us for our special rates for students and universities.

Frequently asked questions

What is compliance?

The term compliance means the adherence to legal regulations, regulatory standards and the fulfillment of other standards and requirements, which a company voluntarily agreed to (e.g. the conclusion of a contract).

For this reason, openlaws connects legal databases with a contract database in one system. No matter where the change occurs, the company is actively informed.

What is management liability?

Management and board members may be civilly or criminally liable if due diligence is disregarded. Due diligence requires that employees in the company are sufficiently knowledgeable in their respective fields. That includes information on applicable legislation.

Depending on the industry, line of business and applicable law there are different regulations to be observed. openlaws includes Austrian, German and EU law and enables a personalized portfolio to be created with the most relevant laws and decisions.

Tip: ideally, you would develop your own portfolio together with your lawyer.

Can I receive legal advice from openlaws?

openlaws is not a legal consulting service. Legal advice is legally reserved for lawyers. Complicated matters can only be resolved by legal experts - until artificial intelligence can solve such cases, it's going to be a few decades.

However, the technology supporting openlaws helps to optimize and automate processes. This allows large amounts of data to be monitored more effectively and economically than in the past. Legal advisors can focus on the real problems and let the platform perform the tasks which can be automated.

Legislation and case law in the form of "open data" are increasingly being made available. This "raw material" from various databases is collected, processed and analyzed automatically by openlaws. Through the "open innovation" approach, experts can help to improve the system and to shape and form it to really make it their own.

How much does the service cost?

The basic version of openlaws is free. Many features can be used by simply registering. If you are interested in more advanced features for your company, your organization or research facility, there are different packages to choose from. Please contact us for an individual offer.